I Think I'm In The Mood To Bake

What a straggly day this has been. I've accomplished absolute nothing other than I did get my walking in this morning and helped hubby and neighbor take the cover off the pool. I tried to knit but couldn't get into it, tried to blog and again couldn't get with it, I didn't want to read, or to garden, or to talk on the phone (which I never like to do but should stay in touch with friends and family more than I do). I thought about doing some baking but didn't want to go to the grocery to pick up eggs. I used the last one in the frig last night when making Amish Pasta Salad. It was so good, I love the dressing used in this salad although I know it has more calories than it should have. We love pasta salads and I make a lot of different ones, most having an oil and vinegar base dressing. This one has a mayonnaise base, two cups of it, but oh it is so good.

I think I am probably in a mood to bake and tomorrow I will make myself go to the grocery and re-stock the frig and whatever else needs to be replenished in the kitchen. I've been buying fresh strawberries, butter and red leaf lettuces, young onions, basil, broccoli, and …collards (I'm a GA girl) from a set-up beside the bank's parking lot. I'm told they will have fresh produce to sell all summer as each crop matures. This particular farm grows for a local grocery chain and so grows a large variety of vegetable for them. I don't really go to the grocery that often anymore since there is just the two of us. Like so many people, we eat more and more prepared foods. It was simply easier for Mr. Rō to handle the kitchen when I was taking chemo if there were foods that didn't take a lot of preparation. While I much prefer cooking everything from scratch, it doesn't happen that often any more. I still love reading cookbooks and still find myself buying one each time we visit a different state or country, I just don't use them to prepare food by the way I use to.

The hobo bag is felted and it really turned out nice. I used Patton's merino and even the cream color yarn felted nicely. Now, do I line it or not. If it were for me I wouldn't put a lining in it but can I actually give a bag without a lining as a gift? Probably not. I've thought about putting a zippered lining in it because it is pretty open at the top and that would make a more secure 'pocketbook'. The person I'm giving it to doesn't knit, as far as I know, so it wouldn't be used as a knitting bag. She is a medical technician so she might enjoy using it for a work tote. I'll have to think about it some more, still have a couple of days to decide. We'll be leaving on Friday morning as soon as my radiation treatment is completed. It's been several years since we've visited these friends and we're looking forward to seeing them again. They, like us, have become grandparents since we were last together. Guess what we'll be talking about. My daughter had a new brag book printed of Dariana's latest escapades for me to take with me to GA last month. Grandparents love to brag about their grandchildren, how could they not?

I Rescued A Knitter Today

Today I rescued a knitter who had strayed from our path. It wasn't hard but it did take a show and tell lesson to do it. DH has a friend from working days that just happens to live in our little village; in fact, he and his wife married and built a new home here several years before he retired so they have been a big help to us in finding our way in this little world. The wife makes really gorgeous quilts and in fact has one that both DH and I covets, an appliqued and quilted iris pattern, that hangs on their loft's banister.

Anyway there were over last week to see our iris. I happened to have just started the pink stripped bag. She commented on it and we begin talking about knitting. She 'use to' knit before she started quilting; had knit a few sweaters for herself and her children out of Red Heart acrylic and felt like there wasn't anything more to knit once she exhausted that avenue. I ask if she would like to see some of my finished projects and she did.


I suckered her in and I don't think she ever realized it.

Before she left she thought she might like to take out her needles again and try to make a felted purse if I could guide her through it. Of course I was excited to help and so after finishing the pink striped hobo bag last night, I called and ask if she would like to see it before it was felted. This morning I was ringing her doorbell well before 10 o'clock. She was stunned at the size of this bag (so was I, not realizing it was going to be this large). After we talked last night she had gone on-line and found a pattern that she thought was simple enough for her to knit. We went over all the details of knitting and felting it and I offered needles in the right sizes so she wouldn't have to buy additional materials when she buys yarn. When I left she was excited.

Me? I'm excited too; so happy to have captured one more in the knitting web. I will make sure she sees my new bag once more after it is felted, shaped, and dry and before I depart with it. Keeps the interest up!

Knitting and Partying

I was reminded by my 'mental note' to contact some of my knitting friends and arrange a get together. It turns out everyone had plans for the weekend, from going to visit family to kitchen renovation, so one of the ladies suggest June 9th for a visit and to celebrate birthdays, hers on the 5th and mine on the 7th. We will make it into a party day and I'll make a lunch or brunch for the patio; and we'll eat cake too. I'll teach them the S-cord which I just learned myself, for using on a new knitted purse. A purse was the first project that we did together when I was teaching them to knit after they first knitted beddie slippers. This group of ladies can do some knitting and we all have a favorite thing to knit. One lady knits prayer shawls, two or three a week, and keeps them on hand to hand out to sick or to sadden people. She gave me a beautiful fuchsia, cabled shawl to wrap-up in while I took chemo and although I had many shawls, this one is special and I always feel her closeness when it is wrapped around me. I'll keep you posted on our party.

I'm posting a couple of my OTN projects today. I really do have to get busy and work on these two. I put my own knitting off to knit for others, which I enjoy doing. Since these are usually small projects I will think I can knit it up quickly and then work on the jacket but before I get to the jacket something else always finds its way onto my needles. I'm sure I'm not the only knitter with this problem. I can say this, neither of the projects has been on the needles for longer than a year but I do have the crocheted afghan called Sea Peach that has been on the needle for over three years. That’s because I decided to knit again. I do want to finish the afghan, it is a beautiful thing done on a big size P needle with two strands of yarn and triple crocheted shells that puff. I don't know how logical it is to crochet something like this afghan because I feel sure it will snag easily, but it certainly makes a beautiful afghan.


And here's the latest purse, its almost completed now, just have finish knitting the S-cord strap, then felt it. Guess who may be getting it? It could belong to my pal in the Spring Felted Bag Swap, or, it could be going to a friend. Wait and see!


Today Mr. Rō got up saying he had to go to town. Since he hates shopping and I picked up an extra gallon of deck stain for him yesterday, I am able to guess what he has gone for. Our anniversary is Monday and he's always generous on our anniversaries. I too, have to go shopping before the weekend is over. My family will be celebrating a birthday or anniversary almost every week for the next two months starting with our anniversary. My daughter and I have June birthdays as well as Mr. Maestro, DH and son have July birthdays, then my daughter's anniversary is in July, and her husband's birthday falls in August. Little Dariana's birthday isn't until November but we celebrate her joining our family on July 4th. That's the day we flew to Guatemala and she was put into our arms. She's truly a joy and worth celebrating with two birthdays.

My treatments are going well so far and I expect them to continue that way. Thank each of you who has added a comment to my blog and for the e-mails I've received with your warm thought and encouragement. I do appreciate each one of them.

Knitting Diary & DH's Cardigan

I decided today to update my hard disk knitting photos. A couple of years ago I decided to start a knitting diary and to keep a scrap of yarn, the label, dates of work, who project was for, etc and to make a photo of the work in progress and the finished item. Like so many things I start with good intentions, I have fallen behind and have had to catch up more than once.

For instance, the cardigan I knitted for DH last year lacked a photo of the finished project so today I pulled the sweater out and took the final photo. I knitted it with Jamieson's Chunky Shetland yarn and used a pattern from a back issue of Family Circle Knitting Magazine.


I took photos as I went along but finished knitting the sweater just about the time I started chemo-treatments and I never got the finished product cataloged.


I was pleased with the way it turned out and so was Mr. Rō.





I have several projects on the needles that I made photos of and I'll share them in the next few days. I do knit things other than bags; it just happens I have always loved 'pocketbooks' and shoes. I never get tired of a new bag or new shoes and have an overflow in my closet. I have given a lot away in the last few years and still have more than I need. What a wasteful person I am in those respects.

I had my first radiation treatment today. It was not bad or stressful in any way other than worrying about what side effects could happen. I'll just trust that everything is going to be alright, I believe that it will be. I didn't go to my knitting group tonight because I want to try and make sure there are no embarrassing surprises from the treatments, the Dr. forewarned me that there could be. Next Monday night will be a holiday weekend and there won't be any knitting, then throughout the summer our group will meet on Tuesday nights. The shop will be closed on Monday while the proprietor works with some of her own fleece, yarns, dying, and starting a label of her own. Doesn't that sound exciting? I wish her the best of luck.

I've let too much time pass since I had the group of ladies I taught to knit come out and knit with me. Spring is such a busy time for us and the iris get so much of our attention during April and May that it's hard to work everything in. I'm going to put a note on my mental calendar to call the group tomorrow and make a date for them to come out, perhaps over the weekend if they don't have holiday plans. Mr. Rō is busy cleaning and resealing the decks and if I'm lucky maybe he'll get the pool up and running by the weekend. We can sit, knit and relax by the pool and drink lemonade; the weather is predicted to be beautiful. Perhaps, Mr. Rō could be persuaded to grill for us and I can make a Strawberry Trifle with lots of good pudding and loads of real whipped cream. Yum!

Package On It's Way - Mystery Swap & SFB Exchange

Packages in the mail, whatch and see if one of them is for you.

Not An Intentional Lie

When I said I'd get my Mystery Swap in the mail last week I really thought I would. 'Things' just happened, and it didn't happen. I had everything ready to go except for a note on Friday and thinking that wouldn't take more than a minute to write I decided to wait until Sat. morning. Meantime I decided since I had everything gathered for the first package to my pal in the Spring Felted Bag Exchange I should go ahead and put it together and make one trip to the post office.

As you know, we live in a very small town and the post office doesn't open until ten o'clock on Saturday mornings, so I proceeded with putting my package together, writing my notes and eating strawberry shortcake. (Yum, the strawberries are so good and I still had pound cake from the one my son baked on Mother's Day, with half and half trickled over it for moisture and real whipped cream.) Everything done and at 1:10 off to the post office I go, plenty of time before they close at 2:00. I pull into the parking lot and walk up to the door with my packages and guess what, they closed at noon.

Now tell me, why would a post office open for only two hours in the middle of the day? To top that, Mr. Rō went to buy a battery for the garage opener. We do have a Radio Shake in our small town, located 'inside' our new (the second one) drug store to find they also close at noon on Saturday. I'm not sure what this all means; are small towns so slow they don't have enough customers to stay open on Saturday afternoons, or are they so busy they have to close to attend some function; there was a Lawn Mower Race taking place at the fairgrounds yesterday.

All that said, the two packages are in the front seat of my car waiting to be mailed first thing on Monday morning. Look out ladies, two of you have a package coming next week.

In finished knitting the body of the purse I've been knitting on off and on last week. Today I will get the strap knitted and it will be ready to felt. I had no idea this bag was going to be so large before it is felted and still can't envision it shrinking to the size the pattern states the bag should be. This is one huge bag. I can't wait to see if finished.

My entrelac class was fun and I have the first two tiers knitted. Once you get the hang of all the turns the knitting goes fast, at least I think it is going to. I forgot the camera so will try and remember it the next time I go to the shop so I can get a picture of the stole to post.

I've been receiving quiet a few posted comments and e-mails from people reading my blog. Which of you are my secret pals?

Entrelac, Tattoos, and Tomato Plants

Yes sir, now I have tattoos too. I received three of them yesterday. They are used for body mapping to locate the exact spot where I am to receive radiation. I will begin treatments on Monday and will have one every day for four weeks. Hopefully I will then be rid of Hodgkin's disease and cancer free. I'm looking forward to having a normal life once more with plenty of energy to run and sing and dance; like a young girl going on her first date. The difference is, I want to garden, knit, play with my granddaughter, enjoy my family, and be able to travel.

Tuesday I signed up for an entrelac class and was shown how to knit the first triangles so I could have my homework (the first row) before class begins tonight. We are making a gorgeous stole using Nora's Silk Garden Lite yarn. I chose colorway 027, beautiful blues and browns. I've been wanted to learn entrelac for some time now so the classis a way for me to 'do it' and stop procrastinating. Plus, it's being offered my FYS and will be a treat to knit along with the other ladies. If I remember to take my camera tonight I'll take a photo of the stole the shop has on display.

I've had a couple of e-mails from my upstream partner in the No Sheep Secret Pal Skein Exchange. She sent a nice e-mail telling me about herself and her family, I have to do the same for my downstream pal. Some of the new non-wool fibers on the market are so beautiful. I'm looking forward to this exchange and plan to get my first downstream package off next week. This is a two package exchange – fun!

This morning I put out some pepper plants and planted tomato plants in the garden while DH power washed the decks in preparation of opening the pool next week. I've been test growing the tomatoes in a big pot in the sunroom, then on the deck to see if an early start inside will produce tomatoes before July 4th. There are blooms now but will have to wait and see what the transition does to them. There are a few ripe strawberries in the patch that we put in this spring and the Vidalia Sweet onions are beginning to show growth. There are a few beans blooming, need to plant more, and want to plant okra, Speckled butter-beans and Crowder peas (I'm a Georgia Girl). I will buy a couple of squash plants, only enough to make squash pickles – oh, they're so good on a roast beef sandwich or with a vegetable dinner, and I'll buy a couple of cucumber plants because they too will produce more than the two of us will use. I'll share with my daughter and our neighbors if there is extra, generally there is.

Last week I put up the hummingbird feeder and late in the afternoon sat on the porch knitting, having a glass of wine and watched the hummingbird zip back and forth from the feeder to the crepe myrtle trees. They are always so active at that time of day making their preparations for the night. So far I've only seen the one but others will come as the weather gets warmer. It was such a thrill to have baby Eastern Bluebirds in our boxes this year. It would really be a thrill to find a hummingbird nest and see how tiny the little creature must be before it leaves it's nest.

We've put in another bed for perennials and now have to fill it with plants. So much to do and enjoy each spring but never enough time to accomplish it. How do I chose between all the things I love. My days are getting longer as I try to crowd something more in each day. I like getting up early and having coffee as the birds wake up and begin chirping. Lo, life is good ain't it.

Mystery Knitters Swap Ready TO GO

The one skein has been knitted for Cindi and the package for the WhoDuKnit Mystery Swap is ready to go except for one final item. My son made the suggestion while he was home for Mother's Day weekend and it was such a great idea that I decided to discarded the one I'd planned on using which means I have to make one more trip to a department store (probably tomorrow) before I mail the package. I am so pleased with the way this turned out that I have to knit another for myself but I want to use Nora's Kureyon, probably color 194. Wait too see the photo post at the end of this week and tell me what you think.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day, both my children were here and made a wonderful lunch for our families. Little Dariana had a ton of hugs and kisses for her grandmama and we played doll and I gave her the big lollipop that Althea sent her in the Knitter's Treat package she sent me. Here's a photo of her enjoying it.


I've almost finished knitting the purse I plan to take to our friend in NJ. This trip's date has changed to the first week-end in June because of the weird weather we've had this spring; the irises will not be in full bloom at Presby's Garden until then. Should I find time I would like to knit a felted wine caddy for the husband, if not it will have to be wine in a gift bag.

Our week, last week, was really a busy one with our garden being at peak bloom. We had guest to visit everyday except on Tuesday (Dr. appt. day) meaning we needed to keep the lawn (weeds) cut, the garden dead-headed, and the porch ready for resting. That too means making sure there is a beverage to offer and a clean bathroom at all times, just in case. I put in a new border perennial bed last week also and planted tall phlox, hardy asters, platycodon, dianthus, coreopsis, hardy salvia, digitalis and crocosmias. At last I've made a start on the garden. We've had 16 yards of soil from the bottom of a drained 'fish pond' delivered to use building beds and to add to the vegetable garden. Lots of work to be done this summer providing my treatments allows me to continue working outside. This fall we will add trees and shrubs, and yes, I know this is backward planting in building a new garden but you do what you have to and I can't bear looking at the property with no flowers blooming for another year.

Answers To This Weeks Felted Bag Question

This Week's Question:

How did you get interested in felting? Did you learn it from someone, see a bag you liked? Just want to try something new? If you have a picture of your first project, please include it!

I had just started to knit again after not picking up my needles for years and noticed in several magazines that people were felting their own bags. Since I always loved the look of a boiled wool jacket and have owned several myself, the idea caught my attention right away. About the same time there was a new yarn store opening about a mile from my home and they had the most fantastic staff of any yarn store I'd ever been in before, or since for that matter. They stocked the store with yarns I'd never seen or heard about and displayed lots and lots of their knitted items, including felted bags. When they were settled they decided to have a felted bag class and I signed up for it right away. I didn't think I'd ever use anything that I felted myself but how wrong I have been. Not only do I use the items I make myself, I give them as gifts and am thrilled to see they are used by the people I give them to. Here is a picture of my first felted bag and also some of my bags are in the photo album at http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bag-A-Holic/photos/browse/5ce5?m=l

My Knitter's Treat Package Has Arrived

LOOK - LOOK - LOOK





Oh my, What a Knitter's Treat.
I came home last night to a package from New York, NY and what do you suppose it was? It was from my upstream Knitter's Treat partner, Alethea. Alethea, you really are a spoiler, I mean really. What a joy it was pulling out all those many smaller packages from that 'small' box. I couldn't believe you could get so much inside. My niece always teases about how much I can package in an envelope but I do believe you have me beat. Look at all the paper beside the box then look at all the things I received.

I started with the smallest wrap and went up a size each time until I got to the last, and the very best. I was near tears to think what a wonderful person you must be to choose such lovely things for me. The smallest package is a wonderful BookArt hand-crafted metal bookmark, a Dragonfly that identifies with me loving to read and loving to garden. Then, there was cute adhesive art stickers for paper toppings, a 'just-the-right-size' notepad for writing down names and camera photo numbers for DH while we are on garden tours, two nice tile magnets (did you make them Alethea?), and the most unique little garden package I've ever seen. A small round tin that says on the lid, 'The Pocket Garden Seed Collection' edible flower garden. Inside is five little tins with seeds for edible flowers, five little garden markers to identify which seed is which flower when they bloom, and a cute little pencil to write the names on the markers. There is also instruction on how to grow each type flower and recipes for using the flowers in food and for drying the flowers to be used in a flora arrangement. How charming could you get? You must have read my blog from start to finish and shopped for me for days to do such a thourgh job of spoiling me. Now, that's not all that was in my package, the next item was a huge, all natural, grape lolly-pop that is intended for my 'Pride and Joy granddaughter', Dariana. She will be so delighted when she comes. I wrapped the paper back around the lolly-pop so she could un-wrap it herself. She loves presents and I often have something wrapped up or in a bag for her when she comes. Next was knitting patterns from Just One More Row http://www.justonemorerow.com/ called 'Beautiful Bags', and a packet of embossed flower garden note cards, thank you. The next item I opened was bath accessories, a nice scrubbing mitt, body wash and body lotion. Then there was a packet of Parmesan cheese bred, oh so yummy it WAS, I have to see if I can find the same brand locally. There is a magazine I've not seen before from Garden Gate called Backyard Retreat that I had to thumb through last night and will go back to day. It is full of neat ideas for outdoor living including some wonderful sounding recipes. Last was my SUPER treat, three skeins, did you hear, three skeins, of Banana Silk Yarn. It is hand spun in Nepal and made from banana fibers. It is gorgeous and shinny and bright in color and has 150 yards to a skein. The texture is thick and thin and really soft. I've been dying to try knitting with this fiber yarn and already know what I'm going to knit. Either the Triangular sari silk bag at the Wool Peddler, http://www.recycledsilk.com/bags.html or the Unbiased recycled silk bag at Knitty, http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/PATTunbiased.html both bags are Stephanie Shirman designs.

I hope I haven't left anything out. I love everything and can't wait to get to know Alethea better. I already know she's such generous person.

Cast-On for Mystery Swap

Its time I started on the project for my partner in the WhoDuKnit Myster Swap. I've debated over something she would enjoy that could be made from one skein of yarn. Naturally I've looked through the new 'one skein' books and I've chased around the blogs looking for something interesting. I've finally decided. Last night I cast-on the stitches and knitted about two inches to see if I thought it would work out with the yarn she sent me for the swap. I think it will and hopefully I'll have a package ready for the post sometimes late next week. I'm not expecting to get much knitting done this week-end, just to much going on.

Today we will cut some of our beautiful iris and take for an exhibit at our local botanical gardens, Lewis Ginter. The gardens sponsor two plant sales each year and this week-end is the spring biggie. Iris rhizomes are not dug until late summer, early fall so our local iris chapter only has plants for sale at the fall sale so we're hoping this display of beautiful, colorful Iris will entice people back in the fall.

Tomorrow and Sunday is 'Arts In The Park' a yearly event in Richmond with hundreds of vendors and thousands of people. I love to go and spend most of a day seeing what these talented people are offering each year. Sometimes I buy, usually I look, but there is always something to wish for. My daughter also wants me to go with her and my granddaughter to the Children's Museum for a 'Princess Party'. I'd love to go just to see my princess dressed up like a princess. Perhaps there will be time.

Sunday we have a couple of garden tours to go to, then a picnic. Tonight I will make a pasta salad to take to the picnic. Here's the recipe I will use; it makes a huge bowlful and its so delicious.

Pasta Salad

For the salad mixture:
1-10 ounce box of pasta (your choice)
1 bunch of fresh cilantro
1 large green bell pepper OR yellow, red, or orange peppers, or a mix of colors
1 pint container of grape tomatoes OR 2 regular ripe tomatoes
3 scallions
1 small can of water chestnuts
1 small can of sliced black olives
1-14 ounce can of blacked peas OR black beans OR red beans

For the dressing mixture:
2/3 cup of GOOD olive oil
1/3 cup of tarragon vinegar
1 large or 2 medium cloves of fresh garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 or 2 drops of a hot pepper sauce
1 tablespoon cumin (do not leave out, it's what makes the salad)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

How To:
Make the dressing first, then while preparing the salad mixture, cook the pasta. This sequence makes everything come out in the order needed to mix the salad.

Dressing mixture:
In a small mixing bowl mix the olive oil, vinegar, garlic Dijon mustard, and hot pepper sauce. Whisk together until the mustard is blended well with the other ingredients. Add the cumin, sugar and salt and whisk until the cumin has dissolved into the oil and vinegar. Set aside to rest while the pasta cooks. When the pasta is cooked and cooled, whisk the dressing again then pour over the pasta. With a large slotted spoon, turn the pasta gently to cover all the pieces while not breaking the pasta.

Cook the pasta according to box directions or to your liking. When done, drain and cool by covering in cold water, then draining again. Have dressing ready to pour over pasta as soon as it is cool to keep it from sticking together.

Salad Mixture:• Wash the cilantro well to remove any dirt or grit then strip the leaves from
the main stem and let drain.
• Open the black olives, peas and water chestnuts; rinse the peas and water
chestnuts until all the foam is removed, then chop the water chestnuts.
• Rinse the scallions and chop fine, after removing the green blades and root.
• Wash the green pepper and dice into small pieces
• Wash the grape tomatoes and cut in half, or if using regular tomatoes, chop
into cubes
• Chop the cilantro leaves

Pour the pasta into a large mixing bowl. Add the cilantro and mix with the slotted spoon. Add the remaining ingredients turning with the slotted spoon until they are evenly distributed throughout the salad. Serve.

Any leftovers will keep in the refrigerator several days. Leftovers can be heated for a few seconds in the microwave if so desired; my husband does.

Knitting Exchanges & Iris Gardens

Dang it, there is never enough time from mid-March until mid-June to get everything done that I would like to do. If I knit I feel like I'm cheating on gardening, if I garden I feel like I am neglecting my knitting. I love each hobby so much that I want to give a 100% of my time to each of them and of course that isn't possible. Once the weather gets really hot, it was 'only' ninety degrees yesterday, I don't do a lot outside and of course from around Thanksgiving until mid-March it is to cold to work outside very much. If I could learn to managed my time, I would devote Mid-March through mid-June to gardening and the rest of the year to knitting but I'm sometimes a selfish person wanting all good things at all times; both knitting and gardening is a good thing to me.

I'm trying to decide which bag I am going to knit and felt for my Spring Felted Bag partner. I have a pattern (I won't say which) that I ordered from Knit-Pick planning to knit it for myself this of course hasn't happened yet. It is such a good looking bag I may decide to knit it for this partner. From reading her questionnaire she hasn't made or been given this one. However, this is an entirely different type bag from her others so perhaps it wouldn't be a good choice for her? Lo-the trials and tribulations of knitting for someone else but oh Lordy, how I love it.

I've heard from my upstream partner in the Knitter's Treat Exchange to let me know she/he hasn't forgotten me and that my package will be arriving from the US. She/He has been very thoughtful to post to my blog and let me know I'm going to be spoiled. Thank you "Partner' for this kindness. I think it is important to stay in touch with whomever you are partnered on these exchanges. No one wants to be left wondering if they've been forgotten or whether or not the upstream partner has reneged on their commitment.

This morning I finished up a shrug I knitted for my sister. Hubby has gone to the post to mail it for me right now. I really would like to post a picture of the shrug but I'm considering submitting it to Mag for a fall issue of the MagKnits magazine. I want to knit it once more and make a few improvements before I say for sure that I am going to submit it, but I love the way it looks. I want to knit it with a different yarn than the one I used this go-around and of course pay closer attention to noting for a pattern. Since I'm not going to post a picture of the shrug I will post something from our garden for you to enjoy.

The iris were popping like crazy in the heat this week. Our garden is about one-third at peak right now and would probably have peaked by the weekend except we are back to cold weather this morning. Yesterday was ninety-two degrees, today its fifty-seven; what a change. The iris are really telling us about the crazy season. Many of them are blooming down in the foliage or on very short stalks instead of putting up the tall stalks that identifies a tall bearded iris. The colors are still vibrant and its a joy to look out the window and see the many colors in bloom at one time. Mr. Rō and I love walking through the beds early in the morning with our first cup of coffee to see what is going to open each day, and again in the early evenings with a glass of wine and having the neighbors come over and join us to see what is in bloom. What a pity this excitement only last for a few weeks, it such a joyous time for us.

Gold Smoke, Snow Goddess, & Color Carnival Tall Bearded Iris

It has begun raining again. Shall I drive into Richmond and do the shopping that needs to be done or shall I knit. I think knit, its to chilly to be outside.